Japan's Kawada Industries and General Robotix have teamed up to develop a "Human Interactive Robot" or HIRO. The robot is designed to conduct research into how humans and robots can work side by side, which Kawada believes will be a key element for the next generation of robots.

HIRO looks surprisingly similar to Johnny V from the movie Short Circuit: It's stands about 1.6m tall, has two stereo cameras as a head and a broad shouldered torso with two robotic arms. Unlike Johnny V, however, its body is covered in what Kawada refers to as a "robotic suit" out of highly flexible material which both, hides the robots machanics from view and cushions inadvertent collisions with a human collaborator.

The HIRO will be sold to research institutions for around 57000 Euros or 77000 US dollars.